


Lance to Earth

by Lady_of_the_Lake97



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bilingual Keith, Bilingual Lance, Earth, Happy Ending, Home, I have no self control, I lied, It's canon king, Klance endgame, Lance makes a home video for his family, M/M, Send a message home to his family, Spanish, This is kinda angsty, Video, angsty, bi lance, but also fluffy, but like nothing happens for them, klance, lance kind of coming out, lance to earth, pinning, remember how I said Klance doesn't actually really happen, sending a message home, so it's also cute, spanish speaking keith, super cute, vlog, what was on the disk lance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-12
Updated: 2018-04-12
Packaged: 2019-04-18 21:35:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14222268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_of_the_Lake97/pseuds/Lady_of_the_Lake97
Summary: "Hey guys Lance to Earth here..."Lance sitting down to record his message to his family on Earth.





	Lance to Earth

"Hey guys Lance to Earth here..." And everyone in Lance's family went absolutely silent. A man had knocked on their door, no one knew him, but Luis, he recognized him as Samuel Holt. He was one of the three people who went missing 5 years ago. He asked to come in, he asked for secrecy and they gave it to him.

He held out a small rectangle that glowed a dull blue and told them it was an alien version of a flash drive with unquestionable amounts of knowledge on it. He tells them how important it is for him to get this to the government and Lance's grandmother was just about to call him in as a crazy person when he said it.

"This also contains a video message from your son." Of course they didn't believe him, they almost threw him out of their house for disrespecting them so. Their Lance, their precious Lance died in a training accident four years ago, they were just getting to the point of normal once more and this man comes in and decides to pull at their old wounds. They almost get him out of the house when he clicks a button on the side of the flash drive and a hologram of Lance pops out. It's muted, but they could clearly see it was a video playing, and they could tell it was their Lance.

He told them he came here, before going to the government to give them Lance's video message. He swore them to secrecy, uploaded the video onto Veronica's new laptop and left quickly afterwards. They waited for the whole family to return before clicking play on the video, and when they did those 6 words were the first thing they've heard Lance say to them in four years. This wasn't the voice mail Lance's mother kept on her phone, and it wasn't the silly recording on Luis phone when he convinced Marco and Veronica to put food coloring in his skin cream. This was Lance.

"I bet your all wondering where I've been, huh? Well that's a very long and kind of stupid story so I'll tell you if you promise not to ground me for the rest of my life, I'm looking at you Mama." The first gasped sob broke from the family and it seemed to ease the tension especially when the Lance in the video began to laugh as well. He paused for a moment, clasping his hands together and running his thumb back and forth across is own knuckles in a calming manner which made his mother confused.

Lance never did that, she's sure he could have picked it up in space, but she wouldn't know how. Her Lance was always the original sort of guy, always had to be doing his own thing and always having to be separated from the crowd in some way. She knew it was because he was the youngest in a large family and was usually forgotten about because of it, she knew that's part of the reason that drove him, so why was he doing this now. Surely he wouldn't just pick up any old habit-

Lance looked down at the motion of his hands and smiled fondly before shaking his head and beginning his epic tale of how he was shipped off in a giant blue lion to space. But his mother did not miss the movement.

She wasn't paying that much attention to the video if she were being honest. It wasn't that she didn't miss her Lance- heaven forbid the day she ever would, it was just that she found herself paying more attention to her son that the actual words coming out of his mouth. She watched his hands move and how he recreated all of his fantastic adventures using different voices for each person on the ship, each had it's own tone of voice, each person seemed to garner an emotion out of Lance and when she looked around briefly to the enraptured faces of her family, she began to realize she was the only one picking up on it. 

That was until she looked to her Mama and found the same awe-inspired face she was just sporting. She reached out her hand, and her Mama held on tightly, as they listened to the music of Lance's voice.

There was Hunk who everyone knew strong and sturdy like a drum beat. He mentioned Pidge as well, someone the family also knew, but not as well as Hunk, there was a teasing note to her, like an upbeat dance for children to move to in the yard. It reminded her of springtime and she found herself enraptured by it. Then came the names she didn't know. Shiro's name was shrouded in a song of admiration, with trumpets and glory, it was very similar to the way the name Allura came from him. Then there was a man named Coran and it sounded like the old car horns that always made Lance laugh and laugh and laugh when he was little and she could tell he looked up to him.

She could tell this was his family.

"Keith hasn't been back in a while though... not since he left after..." And Lance's voice trailed off in the end cold and sad. What started off as something fiery and passionate lulled into something simmering just below the surface, and unchecked storm over the horizon and she felt her Mama's hand go hard in her own. 

She knew that tone very well.

That tone was love.

"Guys, I think it's because of me." He said and he was back to rubbing his finger over his knuckles, calming and grounding while the rest of his body was moving in a nervous energy. The murmurs began in their house, almost enough to drown out Lance's own murmurings in the video, and Lance's mother began to realize something, other's were beginning to pick up on it as well. 

She wonders briefly if his other family in space picks up on it too.

Then Lance does something unexpected, he begins to speak to them in Spanish. "I can't let the rest of the ship know this, in case other people besides you guys listen in on this part." He explained and everything in the room seemed to still, this was important, the most important moment possibly in all of Lance's video, they would give him the attention he needs.

"He most certainly left because of me. When Shiro left, Keith was the one to pick up his mantle, and my god it suited him. Jesus Mama, Jesus, Mary and Joseph everyone in this family who has eyes could see that it looked good on him, and the worst part was also arguably the best part. He took me with him. We were co-leaders, we talked and made decisions together and he respected me and I felt important so when Shiro came back..." He trailed off and the rubbing grew more aggressive. 

Did he realize how in love he was with this boy?

"It was basic math, Luis knows he's the math major! 6 paladins 5 lions, it just doesn't add up in our favor so I told him I'd step down. He'd want the best paladins at his disposal wouldn't he? And Allura was advancing so quickly with Blue and I'm sure Keith wanted red back especially when Shiro was probably going to take over Black again, but he basically called me stupid. He hit me with the biggest, dopiest look every and told me not to worry because everything would work out. 'Leave the math to, Pidge' he said and he hit me with the fondest look! Veronica if you could only see his face? You would have left your husband no doubt in my mind." His smile began to dull though as he moved on. 

"He started pulling away immediately after that, and in hindsight, I think he did it because he didn't want us to chose. Him and Shiro had been fighting over what the leader should do, they didn't work together as seamlessly as Keith and I did together, and I think it's because their leadership styles clashed. Shiro was decisive, he had experience while Keith figured it out along the way, we did that together, and I think that bonded our team together more than anything Shiro has done- NOT THAT SHIRO ISN'T GREAT IT'S JUST.... ugh. "Lance groaned as he leaned back into the chair. He was silent for nearly a minute before he shook his head and leaned back closer into the camera. 

"I can't let this be left unsaid." He said rather decisively as he looked dead on into the camera. "I lied. I'm living a big fat lie and I can't even fix it now if I tried. I remember the bonding moment." He went silent as if to let it sink in, and everyone else seemed to be murmuring their disbeliefs as they looked from one person to the next. Huh, this must be something she missed when she was too busy watching her son. "I know guys, crazy stupid, well why did I lie about something that was so important to this guy? Well if i'm being honest, it's because I was in de **bi** al." A wicked grin took over Lance's face and the whole family groaned.

"Did he just come out via pun?" Marco asked for the sake of it not expecting an answer.

"And if I know my family as well as I think I do, then I'm going to say this and hope it makes sense, yes Marco you lovable lug, I did just come out via pun, kiss my a-as I was saying." Lance coughed quickly, flushing red in embarrassment before shaking his head to clear his thoughts. "As I was saying, I wasn't really emotionally ready for the realization that hit me in that moment. God he was so soft, and he was so sweet and whispered sweet nothings into my ear to try and keep me awake long enough so I could get to the healing pod without dying." Lance raked his fingers through his hair and let out a near sob as the next words left his mouth.

"And I might not even get to tell the idiot how I feel because he left all because I'm a damned insecure ass. He tried to kill himself only a couple of weeks ago and we couldn't even see him to make sure he was okay. He was going to launch himself into a ship to destroy it so we'd all get out safe and he would have died not knowing how much we all love him. He is still out there almost dying to protect us from the shadows daily and he might never know and he has no one on Earth to remember him even if he dies, so you guys have to. Promise me you'll remember him, remember Keith Kogane. Please." He began to breath heavily, clearing his throat and getting back under control he looked back up at the camera and sighed quickly before returning to English.

"Now that that's done, ummm, I guess it's time to do this. Allura suggested we all tell you what our final wishes would be in case..." He trailed off and the room, that went from excitement to disgruntled annoyance to love and longing went completely dead as what Lance had said kicked in.

This were to be his final wishes in case he never returned.

"So first and foremost, do as you please with my earthly belongings, so long as there is always a place for me to return back to when I get home, I really don't care about the rest of it. Divide it amongst yourselves, I know Luis was always jealous of my amazing style, so he can have full access to my closet if he already hasn't used my endless supply of fashion forward clothes yet." The room was silent. No one has touched anything in Lance's room. It has remained the same as it did the day he left years ago. They'd go in there, sure to clean up the dust and to simply soak in Lance, but nothings been moved or touched. The room is only ever used when people want to talk to Lance.

"And I'm sorry, but I can't promise you my loved jacket, Pidge has a monopoly on all the jackets in the castle for when we grow too big for them. She already wears Keith's everywhere since he's not here, but you can't let her know I said that. As for funeral arrangements, I'm sure you guys already gave me a stellar one on earth, but there's only so much you can do without a body." He spoke without any emotion for this part, his eyes glassed over. "If I don't make it out of here, burn my body and spread my ashes in the ocean. That way I can be at peace knowing that I somehow managed to become both fire and water in the after life." He had a sad smile on his face, as if thinking about an inside joke he has yet to tell them.

"Now onto the less sad, but still sad stuff." He said with a wave of his hand as if talking about his own death was easy.

"Grandma. If you aren't dead yet you old crazy woman, I just want to say I love you. You have helped shape me into one hell of a runt and I wouldn't be here without your damned archery lessons when I was four. You know, in hindsight that was ridiculous. Four year olds play with toy cars and get muddy and gross, but of course you had to take me outside and teach me how to hunt with a bow and to become a sharpshooter on the sea. Who fishes with a bow and arrow any way? God I'm traveling through the whole known and unknown universe and you're still the craziest thing I've ever met." He teased, eyes bright and smile wide. Lance's mother looked down to her side to see her Grandmother tearing up not making a move to stop the tears from falling as she huffed out lackluster insults about how the ungrateful child finally was realizing her worth. "When I come back I can't wait to show you how good I've gotten, it'll blow your socks off and you'll finally realize how much better lazer guns are."

"Damned kid doesn't have any respect for the old weapons." His grandmother huffed out, but there was a smile on her face.

"Veronica dear, I'm sorry I missed out on the birth of my latest niece or nephew. Hopefully you didn't do something stupid like name them after me 'cause when I get back, that would just be really confusing wouldn't it." Veronica put her hands on her hips and huffed at Lance's image on the screen. 

"Of course I named him after you, you dumb lug." She said as if he could hear her.

"Well whatever you named them, I'm sure they're beautiful and live up to the McClain family standard of beauty. After all you were always my prettiest sister."

"I'm you're only sister." Veronica barely got in before Lance continued.

"Of course you are my only sister."  She huffed out in disbelief but it was wet and watery and there was a smile on her face. "I love you Ronnie, and tell the twerps wherever they are that I love them as well." He said using his old nickname for her. When Lance was very young, he had a hard time pronouncing the V's and C's in words so he had taken to calling Veronica, Ronnie and she hated it.

But she had never been more in love with that name than she was today.

"Luis, Luis, Luis, you dramatic mathematic piece of shit. How's life treating you." He said wide smile on his face. "Did you convince that girl to finally go out with you? Oh wait! Does Mom even know there was a girl? Shit, ummm well can't take that back now, there isn't enough time on this thing for me to go on forever." He shrugged into the camera looking apologetic, but Luis just groaned.

"Oh my god, he can't keep his mouth shut for shit." He mumbled under his breath. 

"Luis what girl?" His mother asked and before he could answer Lance was already speaking again.

"Well, cats out of the bag now, Luis had this crush on one of the girls in his advanced calculus class back at Yale and I'm sure he hasn't told you guys yet, but he needed a third roommate and he was already living with Cassie, so he figured why not invite this other girl, how bad could it be." At that Lance shrugged. "When I get bak, you gotta tell me how that went."

"It didn't! Mama, Lance is talking about Jessica."

"The one who married Cassie a year ago?" 

"The same one." He said with a huff and as if to laugh at his misery the Lance in the video began to laugh as well. 

"I also want to know if you'll keep your drunk promise to me. I've been fighting this war for so long just so I can return home to die your hair bright pink." He said a teasing smile on his face. When the confused sound of the family reached his ears Luis quickly spoke.

"I promised him that if he got into the Galaxy Garrison, I'd let him die my hair hot pink."

"Hot pink was too hard to maintain?" Veronica asked, a sad edge to her tone as Luis brought his hand up to his hair to finger the pastel pink locks. 

"Yeah." He said solemnly and Lance's mother's heart broke. She remembers when he came home with Hot pink hair the first time, it was two days after Lance's funeral and she nearly threw him out of the house for the disrespect of it all and he would never tell her why he did it, why he maintained it for all these years and she felt terrible. She put a hand on his shoulder, and without looking he put his hand on her own, patting it assuringly to let her know she was forgiven. 

"I love you, Luis." Lance said a happy smile on his face before 'turning' his attention over to his final sibling. "Hey Marco."

"Hey Lance."

"You proposed to Olivia I'm assuming."

"Yes I did."

"So I'm also assuming you've had the wedding?"

"Sorry bud."

"Don't apologize, I know you loved her too damn much to not marry her so I'm assuming that I missed it, and I'm sorry I wasn't there to be best man. I guarantee I would have given the best best-man speech there ever was. It would have included at the very least 7 different puns and about 3 embarrassing stories about how in love you are with your wife. Got any kids yet?" Lance asked with a wicked grin on his face. "Of course you do, you couldn't keep your hands to yourself if your life depended on it. How many? I don't really know how long I've been gone, times a little funky up here but Pidge says it's about 4 years so I'm gonna guess you have one and there's another on the way? Come on! How close."

"Surprise." Marco said with a shrug. "Lance knows me too well." The room got quiet before there was a quick uproar of cheers. "We only found out a day ago, I have no idea how he figured that out so quickly."

"Since I have no idea what's going on down there I'm assuming I'm right. So congrats buddy, I love you and my nieces and or nephews I have yet to meet."

"Mama, Papa." Lance's mother felt her husbands arm wrap around her waist in comfort as Lance began to address them. "I'm sorry. I know how much you want me home, but I can't. I have so much to do up here, it's too important for me to drop everything and come home, but know that a part of me wants to come home to you every damned day. Mama I miss your lasagna so much, I'd cut off my own arm just to smell it and Papa, I'm so desperate to see you again I could probably hug you without making fun of your cheap cologne." Lance said and finally the tears that he'd been holding back had come pouring down.

"I miss you so much, and I just want you guys to hold me like when I was little and had all those nightmares, and I'm scared, I'm really really scared, up here, but when I'm not scared I've never been happier in my whole life. I love you guys, I love you guys so much, but I love it up here too, and I hope one day you can forgive me for choosing this, for choosing to be a paladin and a guardian of the whole universe over coming home. I've seen what's out here and I can't just stand by. I need to be here. I need to stay out here so I can protect you, and my family, and Cuba and the beach and lasagna and Earth. I fight for Earth and for you guys so you can keep on keeping on." Lance let out a stuttering breath. "I love you guys, I'll see you soon."

The Lance on the screen begins to move his hand towards the camera as if to stop the video feed, and the whine and shouts of disapproval from the family seem to stop him, even though they know it's impossible that he heard them.

"Well shit." He said before slumping down into the chair once more. "I have one more request for you guys. Pidge, the damned genius, figured out a way to make a camera-smart phone space thing and I've been able to get a bunch of pictures of my adventures. I'm going to send them to you and I want you to keep them. Print them out, hang them around the house because the people in the photos are some of the people we've saved, they're also of Coran, and Allura and all of us paladins. They're my family and I want their photo's hanging in our house like they belong there because they do. I'm also going to send you the video of Keith's Vlog. It's something we started doing to keep sane, but he stopped doing it after he left for the Blade, he only ever made one. I'm sending it to you in hopes that you watch it, and learn more about your future son-in-law because damn it! So help me I'm going to marry this boy because life in space is hectic and I could die at any moment but you wanna know what? I love him and if he loves me too, I'm going to marry him out here and when we come home, even if we're not married at that point I'm still going to introduce him to all of you, so get ready." He said a wide smile on his face and tear stains down his cheeks.

"Now this time is really goodbye. If you miss me, I'm sure you can play the video over again. Here's some of the photos from my journeys out in space and Keith's Vlog. See you later, Space Cowboy." Lance gave them one last smile before turning off the camera and up came a series of photos each depicting Lance with a large array of alien Ladies all smiling and happy. They comment on each photo, joke about what pick up lines their terrible flirt of a son would attempt to use on them as the photos moved on to different people.

It was easy to identify them. Pidge looking annoyed at Lance behind the camera as she's working. Hunk cooking in the kitchen. Allura and her mice, her hair braided a thousand different ways with Coran smiling in the background. Shiro in the middle of falling down the stairs and a blurry picture of Keith, smirking in the background and pulling his hair into a pony tail.

Lance's mother smiled.

She knew how much her son liked hair.

She wished she didn't, but she knew.

The photos were plentiful but they lacked Lance, and they seemed to lack Keith as well considering how much her son talked about him. 

"I'm Keith, pilot of the black Lion _what should I say..._ " The Vlog began rather quickly and there was a small gasp heard across the room and Lance's mother saw Veronica, flushed a little bit as she turned to the rest of the family. 

"This is Keith?" She said, breathing out in disbelief. "He's so pretty. Damn." She said simply turning back to the screen. Lance's mother did as well as she looked on the face of the boy her son was so enamored with. Her boy had good taste.

"I said that already, see that's why I'm bad at this what else am I supposed to tell you." Then he looked into the camera and Veronica cursed again. 

"Who has purple eyes?"

"Okay I guess I'm part-galra."

"Aliens." Luis said with a shrug as if that explained everything. He took a knife out from seemingly no where and flipped it around a little in his hands, resting it easily in his palm, it was a familiar action and in her hand she felt her mother shake. She turned to her side in enough time to see her Mama nod approvingly.

"He's good." She said simply and Lance's mother let out a small laugh as the video kept playing.

"I guess being part-galra's a big deal. Might explain why I was never really good at connecting with people." He said, a fond expression taking over his face even as he said those words. It only lasted a second though before he was huffing out in annoyance. "I still don't understand why I wouldn't just say Voltron." He said distressed looking into the camera and everyone was confused. "It's so much faster, one person says it, right? Done!" He says hitting his hand against the table and that's when it clicks for the rest of the family.

He's talking about Lance and the silly cheer he made up. To think he spent all this time thinking about it? 

"I'm sorry, I am so sorry. I guess I have a bit of a temper so..." He trails off and Lance's mother hears Veronica 'aw' at his expression, but she was paying more attention to the way his thumb was rubbing against his knuckles to ease the tension in his body. She felt herself ache for the boy. So this was where Lance got it.

"I don't know why I'm that way. Maybe I'm naturally untrusting because my mom left me and so instead of accepting people into my life I push them away before they reject me." There was silence thick as hell in the room when those words left that boys mouth and there was only one thing going through everyone's mind.

Adopt him. We're going to adopt him. Keith Kogane who? It's Keith McClain now.

"I said I wouldn't cry!" And the video shut off. And there was uproar.

"I want twelve!" Veronica said with conviction and the rest of the family found themselves agreeing. Luis was moving forward to replay the video when suddenly the camera went back on and Hunk's worried voice was heard. 

"Pidge we really shouldn't be doing this, what if Lance found out?" He said and finally Pidge and Hunk appeared in the video, Hunk looking distressed and Pidge looking rather proud of herself.

"Hunk, Lance is absolutely constipated when it comes to his emotions with Keith. Everyone knows he's absolutely head over heels for Keith and I'm not going to let Lance get away with not telling his family he's in love with the Emotween 2k18." Pidge hissed out to the stunned silence of the rest of the family.

"Hi, I'm Pidge and this is Hunk and we're very good friends with your son, so we know for a fact that there's a high probability he didn't tell all of you about his god forsaken bi crisis. If he did, good on him, if he didn't well we're going to out your son because there's a high probability-" At that Hunk snorted and Pidge turned to glare at him once before turning back to the camera and amended her mistake.

"Okay, I'm going to be honest, I'd bet my left kidney that Lance is going to marry Keith, and I had to tell you. We also figured Lance would include his photos, and we decided to include some of our own because we know while Lance loves taking photos of others, he barely takes them of himself. We also know that he gets embarrassed taking photos of Keith so we've compiled some photos we took of the two of them so give to you. Here they are."

"Hi! And Bye!" Hunk waved from the back as the video ended and thus another series of photos were shown only this time with commentary.

"This was taken when Keith and Lance were arguing over battle strategies. And this one was taken of them training together. Keith is clearly kicking Lance's ass in hand to hand."

"Yeah, but he likes it though."

"Hunk."

"Oh my god his family is going to hear that! Edit that out!"

"Nope!" And the photos kept coming and the family found themselves laughing along to the comments and photos. A minute later and the video officially ended. Luis got up and wordlessly hit replay.

"Hey guys Lance to Earth here..."

* * *

The video played nonstop for the rest of the week in their house. The whole family seemed to memorize it without even meaning too. They showed the video to Marco's daughter, and Veronica's three children, including Lance jr. who would finally get to meet his namesake. 

The photos from the video were saved and printed out and put all over the house. The biggest one, and in Lance's Mama's opinion, the best one was placed right beside Lance's graduation photo. It was a picture from Pidge of her Lance arm thrown around Keith's shoulder's as they slept on the couch cuddled up next to each other after what must have been a very stressful mission. Lance's head was buried in Keith's hair and Keith's head was buried in Lance's neck, hand clenching the undershirt of Lance's armor. 

It was simply romantic.

It was took another two weeks for the government to contact them. They forced them to sign a contract of silence and informed them of all they knew about the situation out in space. They knew most of this from Lance's video, but they were thankful the government was no longer giving them the silent treatment.

They also forbid them from trying to contact Lance and they were pissed. 

It's not like they could anyways, all her children were smart, but there was only so much a broker, a calculus university professor and an archeologist could do to get in contact with Lance galaxies away.

Thank god for Mrs. Holt though.

They underestimate her, because while her husband is the space genius, she is the radio genius. She knows just the right frequencies to send out. She knows how to get messages out under the governments radar, and she was about to use her knowledge for evil. 

"They forbad me from getting in touch with my children." She said simply when they asked her why she was risking imprisonment for this. "Fuck that and fuck them, I have not seen my children in years, I will do as I please." And Lance's Mama found a friend in Mrs. Holt.

It took a little over three months, but they figured out the perfect radio frequency using the electric signatures in the video or some technological junk like that, but it was done. Mrs. Holt went around and told every family they each had a little less than a minute each to say what they wanted, because they didn't know how well this was going to work, and they didn't want the whole universe knowing secrets about their children if something went wrong. 

The McClains agonized over what to say to Lance, a minute wasn't nearly enough time, but they knew, that they would have more if this worked. They just needed to know what to say and it was Lance's grandma who came up with the perfect phrase.

"Are you ready?" Mrs. Holt said the next time she visited the family. "You only have one shot at this." And they all nodded. Lance's mother stepped up to speak, they all voted unanimously that she should be the one to do it. She cleared her head with a quick shake and took a stuttering breath to calm herself, once, twice and on the third breath she nodded to Mrs. Holt.

Mrs. Holt counted her in before hitting a button on her contraption and finally she spoke in deep soothing Spanish.

"Lance, my darling boy, if you come home without a ring on that boys finger, well we don't have to worry about that because a McClain always gets what we want. We love you, bring him home." She nodded once and Mrs. Holt cut the recording.

"It should take anywhere from a week to a month for them to receive it." Mrs. Holt said. 

"How will we know they got it?" Her husband asked, hands fidgeting at his sides. Mrs. Holt gave him a gentle smile.

"In the message, I put my radio frequency. It should only take a couple of hours for my little girl to create a similar machine. After that, it's up to them how quickly they reply and it would take them the same amount of time for us to get their message." She said smile still in place.

"So we'll know if it works anywhere from two weeks to two months from now?" Lance's Grandmother clarified and Mrs. Holt nodded.

"And if we don't hear anything after two months?" Luis asked voicing what everyone was thinking.

"We try again."

* * *

It is 3 am a month and four days later when a loud pounding on their door awakens Mr. and Mrs. McClain from their deep slumber. They open the door to see Mrs. Holt with a wild look in her eyes and tears streaming down her face as she frantically waves a CD back and forth. They were absolutely floored and confused until she was able to croak out one simple sentence.

"They got our message."

The house became alive after that. They were calling everyone to come to their house so they could listen to Lance's message to them together. They were bubbling with excitement as they put the CD into a simple radio and hit play. At first there was static and then lance's unmistakable voice. 

"I can't begin tot tell you how much I've missed your voice Mama. Don't worry, I'm ok and I promise by the end of this, you'll have another son. I'll be standing  **bi** for your next message." And once more there was static. Everyone broke out into sobs at the sound of Lance's voice and it finally clicked. Lance got their message. He was ok. He was alive. They can talk to him. Marco though spent to much time thinking about his brothers terrible pun. 

"We know it's secure now." Mrs. Holt said. "You can send something longer than a sentence if you would like." And then everyone was writing what they wanted to say. They were told a page each so they wouldn't overwhelm Lance in space and they recorded their family messages together a week later to send. Mrs/ Holt came back a week later to install a machine of their very own in their house and taught them how to send, receive, record and save messages on it. After that they checked the machine daily. Lance would try to send them a message every day, but it was just unrealistic and soon the family got used to Lance's weekly phone calls. Sure it was rather a confusing affair at first, but everyone got used to it rather quickly. 

They got to hear the whole story about Lance's progress with Keith over those phone calls from the moment Keith returned to the team to the moment IT finally happened. Lance was describing his most recent near death experience, and Lance's grandmother nearly died of a heart attack, when Lance said it. "I thought I was gonna die Mama! So I just said fuck it and kissed him. Well looks like we're dating now. I can't believe I had my last first kiss sweating and bleeding on an alien war craft, but it's all good now." He said it simply as if it wasn't the best thing that's ever happened to him. He said it off-handedly as if to curb his excitement, but he forgets who he sends these messages too. He's talking to people who have known him a majority of his life so they could tell that he was so happy he could implode. They knew all he wanted to do was scream to the rooftops about how happy he was so they did it for him. Everyone on Earth went absolutely bonkers.

They just sent him back a message over the phone of them screaming congratulations. Lance's Mama was crying, his father was crying, his grandmother was on the couch fanning herself and the whole family was in complete disarray. Just a normal day in the McClain household.

After that Lance's messages became short, not by much, but noticeably shorter. He said it was because he was busy wooing Keith, and that he'd make it up to them when he gets back to Earth and everything is ok. 

Keith also begins to get featured in the messages. At first it's little snippets of hellos, or him calling for Lance to remind him it's time to get food. Then he begins to say his hellos as he teases Lance over the call and everyone can hear the amount of affection this boy has for her son just by his voice.

It progresses of course and soon the two of them are doing their phone calls together and it is clear to everyone in the family that this is it for Lance and they couldn't be happier.

* * *

It is an inconsequential day about a year and a half from that first message when Mrs. McClain notices a small red dot beeping on the machine telling her there is a message. But that's odd. They had only just received their weekly message from Lance and Keith that day. Why would they have another one? Only a couple of hours later? It must have been recorded the same day, but she thought they had already said everything that needed to be said. Something clutches in her gut and she knows it should be worry, but it's not.  

She calls her husband down, as well as the rest of the family because they were still there from Lance's earlier message. They crowded around the machine and it is Luis who clicks play on this monumental bit of audio.

Because by God it is monumental.

"Hi everyone, it's Keith here. I gotta be super quiet because Lance is asleep and I don't want him to hear me recording this message." And everyone was stunned silent. They've gotten calls from just Keith before when Lance was too tired or in the healing pod from a rather rough mission, but this one was different. Why? Because Keith was speaking Spanish, fluently and beautifully without a hitch and Lance's Grandmother let a small swear leave her lips at the sound of it. 

"Lance is in a world of trouble." Veronica said under her breath just to get jabbed in the side by Marco.

"Ummm... surprise?" He said with a little embarrassed laugh in his voice.  "I'm fluent in Spanish... ummm Lance doesn't know, not yet obviously, I'm honestly surprised I've been able to keep it a secret for so long, but um here we are." He says letting out another one of his standard awkward chuckles the family has become used to. There is static silence on the other end of the line for a minute before Keith clears his throat. "I know what you guys tease Lance about, I've known it forever and I've just never known how to bring up the topic to him so I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone. I love your son. I love him so much, and I can't even put it into proper words how much I love your son. It's kind of ridiculous there isn't a word strong enough for how I feel about your son in any language we have come across in the whole known universe. All I know is that i would rather die than live a day without him by my side. I would tear the galaxy apart piece by piece just to reach him and god I want your permission to marry him." He said and it was then that Mrs. McClain realized she was crying. 

"I'm watching your son sleep in our shared bed and he's snoring and wearing this stupid green face mask and there's drool all over the pillow and I still want to marry him. I still want to crawl over and sleep next to him for the rest of my life. Even after witnessing all of that I mean-listen!" And Keith paused his talking enough so they could hear one steady, long, snore before they heard Keith chuckling. "You can probably hear him he's so loud." He continued the smile clear in his voice.

"If that's not love, then I don't know what is. So I guess what I'm saying is. I'd like your blessing and I know Lance is his own man and blessings are 'archaic' and blah, blah, blah, call me a simple man, but before I ask him the big question I would like your support. If you give me your blessing mention something about flowers in the next message, if not then well... I guess I have a lot more convincing to do because I don't think I will ever love anyone as much as I love your son. I'm going to ummm... go to bed now. So ummm... thank you ahead of time for listening and I await your call. I know we've never met, but you guys have become my family through Lance and through these phone calls and I know I haven't said it yet, even if you guys have said it to me multiple times, but I love you. I love you all so much. I hope you love me enough to let me be a part of your family too." And then the message ended.

Lance's Mama didn't even hesitate when she pressed the button to record a new message. "Lance I wish you and Keith were here with us, the flowers are just beginning to bloom."

* * *

Mrs. McClain was so happy she had Mrs. Holt teach her how to save Lance and Keith's messages to her. She's kept a library of them stored in the family computer; only the best ones though. The first one they saved was the one where Lance told them him and Keith were official. She saved every single audio with Keith in it and every single audio where they slip up and say I love you. There are a bunch of audio recordings where Lance says it to Keith, but there are only a handful where Keith says it back and those are very treasured to her. 

She only knows Keith doesn't say it as often because he has told her there is simply no word to describe what he feels for her son. She likes this boy a lot. 

So when the day finally came, she knew fully well how to save the audio.

"Mama what do you mean the flowers are blooming?" And she screamed before the whole household silenced her. "And Papa you too? Why did you say you loved flowers when I know for a act you're terribly allergic to pollen and then Grandma was just blabbering on about how she had Lillies at her wedding. Veronica and Luis I heard you two in the back arguing about red roses verses yellow roses and then Marco why are you quoting that terrible 'Do it!' meme, but every other do it is just a different type of flower? And all the little ones are just chanting 'flowers'? What?" 

So maybe subtly wasn't the McClain's strongest suite, Keith was cackling in the background though and that's all that mattered.

Lance seemed to finally notice Keith's hysterical laughter.

"Do you know what's going on, mullet?" And the laughter died down a little and they hear a hum of a laugh on the other side that sounded oh so much like a kiss and her assumptions were proved correct by her sons hum of content. "What was that for?"

"Honestly? I called you family a couple of nights ago." He said and there was a rustle of clothes in the background as Keith's voice came from farther in the room. "That message was directed more at me than at you. For you see Lance, I'm fluent in Spanish." He said and there was more rustling closely to the mic meaning Keith was back.

"Haha, very funny." Lance teased.

And then Keith spoke. It was meaningless nonsense at first. He told Lance that his eyes shined and that he was the most beautiful boy in the world. He then moved on to tell him about how he knew how his family teased him until he finally began to talk about his own family. He talked about how an old foster family of his taught him Spanish and how he just never had the heart to tell Lance since it was like a secret Language between him and his family. He talks about he would feel out of place talking Spanish to them. Lance's response is swift and effective in giving his family a heart attack.

"And to think you could have been talking to me like that in bed." Keith's laughter is loud and full as Lance begins to try and backtrack when there's no way he possibly can. "That's it we're starting this whole thing over-"

"No!" And there's a lot of fumbling on the other side as Keith must stop Lance from ending their recording.

"Babe, why?" Lance asked with a huff.

"Because I want your family to be here for this." 

"You want my family to hear about how I want you speaking dirty to me in Spanish?"

"Lance!" Keith admonished causing everyone on the receiving end of the recording to laugh at their pour son's misfortune. 

"I'm ending this!"

"I asked them to talk about Flowers!" Keith yelled out quickly and based on the stunned static silence on the other end of the line, Lance was intrigued. 

His mother reached for her Husband's hand because she knew it was coming soon. 

"Why?"

"I asked them a question. I wasn't planning on doing it, but I saw it in the market and it got me thinking so I bought it impulsively before asking them... but I needed this so I bought it and I asked them after wards..." Keith was rambling and he stopped suddenly and they assumed it was because Lance must have stopped him.

"Keith wha-"

"I asked for their blessing to marry you." The gasp of breath from Lance was copied by everyone in the house. Mrs. McClain guessed that subtlety wasn't exactly a Kogane thing either. There's the snap of a box opening, then they heard Lance's stuttering breath on the other line. "Remember planet Xolia? Remember how we got split up at the flea market? Well when I was lost I came across this jewelry store and I just saw this and the first thought that popped into my head was 'I'm going to ask Lance to marry me with this,' and once that thought popped in... Once I let that thought pass through my head I was a goner." He said and Lance was shockingly quiet on the other end as Keith just went on.

"They're the same blue as they ocean and they remind me of your eyes. I couldn't not get it, especially when I found out on Xolia the jewel symbolized endless devotion. I traded my Darba Knife for it." Keith said and Lance was in a fit.

"You what? Keith that's like your favorite knife! You swore to never separate from it! You jokingly asked me to have you buried with it a month ago!" 

"Well 3 months ago I traded it for this ring and I don't regret it." Keith's voice said over the line simply, but with dedication. There was silence, broken by a small hiccup that must be from crying and everyone in the room was panicking and crying and holding onto each other as the silence just got longer and thicker.

"So when you were asleep a couple of weeks ago, when I told you I had to stay up late to clean said knife, I was lying to you. I made a call to your parents and I told them everyone from my Spanish speaking background to how I would move heaven and Earth and the whole universe to get to you. At the end of the message I asked them a simple question. I asked them if they gave me their blessing to marry their son. If they want me to propose then all they had to do was mention flowers in the next message they would send to us." And suddenly Lance was laughing and Keith was laughing and it was wet and sloppy sounding but everyone back home on Earth was doing the exact same thing.

So that's why they almost missed it when it happened.

"And they certainly mentioned flowers, huh Sharpshooter? So I guess the only thing left to say is, Lance, will you-"

"Yes!"

"I didn't even get to finish!"

"Yeah well I don't care if you finished or not, the answer is still yes so put that thing on me right now or so help me..." Lance's voice was ecstatic. He was crying and laughing and there seemed to be no stopping his joy ever present over the recording and his family was exactly the same.

"See, but I feel like I've been robbed the experience of the full 'will you marry me?'" Keith teased weakly over the line.

"Well would you like this ring back then?" Lance asked affronted and Keith was quick to reply.

"No, no! I think it suits you better."

"Damn right it does! You're not getting this ring back unless you pry it from my cold dead hands." There was a moment of small sweet laughter on the recording followed by a moment of silence before Lance spoke again. "I love you." And by God if anyone wasn't crying in their house they would be now.

"I love you, too." Keith's voice was thick with emotion and Mrs. McClain knew she was going to go through a whole box set of tissues herself if this was going to continue. 

Keith cleared his throat in the recording then, before talking. "And that's why you weren't allowed to delete this recording." And it suddenly seemed to dawn on Lance if the gasp of shock was anything to go by. 

"Oh my god, you somehow managed to get my parents and my whole family here for the proposal and you got their permission and everything! And they're going to hear all of this." Keith was have been nodding along because Lance was laughing again pure and joyful and from they could hear, smothering Keith's face with kisses.

"Sharpshooter, before we go any further..."

"Oh! Right. Hey guys! Lance to Earth, guess who's got a fiancé now?" 

And the McClains were convinced Lance did not need a voice recording to hear the cheers coming from the McClain family household in that moment, but they sent one anyways just in case. After doing just that though, they packed everyone up into cars and made a trip down to the local CVS two buy no less than 35 tissue boxes for all of them. Mrs. McClain takes a moment at the register to think about the fact that they haven't cried as a family this hard for this long since Lance "died" four years ago.

 This cry was much better.

* * *

Three months later they receive an out of the blue phone call from space. "We're coming home." Lance tells them. "Not for long, but long enough. We want to get married on Earth, think you can get Marco to clear his schedule long enough for him to marry us in about three weeks? If Pidge's math is right-"

"It's always right!" Said girls voice yelled from somewhere farther away.

"Then this message should get to you in about two weeks so that would leave about two to three weeks to prepare a super small gathering in the backyard by the beach." Lance said.

"We can't wait to see you, and I can't wait to officially put faces to the names of all the people I've come to care about." Keith's voice chimed in soft and smooth and a little anxiously if Mrs. McClain were being honest. There was a murmured sound that they couldn't make out over the recording, but Keith seemed to hear just fine. "Ok Shiro. He told me to tell you guys not to respond to this message because by the time we would get it, we'd already be on Earth." 

"Love you guys! See you soon." And Mrs. McClain was the only one in the house to hear that message play. She stood there in absolute silence for a full minute before she began to scream. She took out pots and pans and began clanking them together screaming for her husband and her mother to come downstairs immediately to assist her. She told them to call everyone of their family to the house immediately and to plan to stay there for a while.

"Lovebug, why?" Her husband groaned as he rubbed sleep from his eyes.

"Because in three weeks we're hosting a wedding." She said. She watched in absolute delight as realization began to dawn on their faces and it was like 30 years were added to their lives as they sprinted to the two closest phones in the house and began to call the family home. As for Mrs. McClain, well she had a menu to plan and a beach garden to tidy up.

* * *

Two weeks and five days later a very familiar nervous laughter is heard coming from the front lawn, and the whole family sprints. They burst through the door and standing there is her son and Keith both clearly aged and sporting new scars since their first video all that time ago, but they don't notice the scars, not at first. At first they notice Lance's wide, happy smile, they notice Keith's nervous one, and they notice Lance's hand joined naturally in Keith's. 

"Hey guys, Lance to Earth." He says and he waves and the whole family watches how the light catches the blue stones in Lance's ring causing the color in the stone to dance like waves and Veronica lets out a low impressed whistle. Those words were all it took though to push the family into motion. Lance was tackled to the ground smothered in kisses and because he was holding onto Keith, he was brought into the tackle too.

It took him a full minute, but Keith was able to pull himself out of the doggy pile to let Lance's family have at him, and of course it was Lance's mother who noticed.

"Keith darling!" She shouted out getting off her son to run towards Keith.

"Ummm... hi, it's nice to meet-" Keith began, hand out to shake hers, but she ignored it as she launched herself at the boy and found herself pleasantly surprised by the sheer muscle on him as he held her up with ease. She found herself humming in appreciation as she gave him a sturdy pat on the chest or two.

"My boy has good taste... it's a pleasure to finally see you son."She said stepping out of the hug to put both of her hands to his cheeks appraising him quickly. "You're even handsomer than I remember, but you're too skinny. We have to feed you." She said pulling his face down so she could plant a kiss on his cheek lightly tapping the spot where her lips just were with her hand. Keith was flushed in embarrassment, but his smile was radiant and reached his eyes with ease. As she looked up at the boy who so easily held her son's heart, she found herself falling in love with him as well. 

Apparently she wasn't the only one.

"How is he prettier in person?"

"Veronica you have your own husband! Lay off mine!"

"You're not married yet!" She teased back and so the long missed family banter went on and on. Mrs. McClain sighed at her children's antics before she turned to Keith to see him smiling lovingly at them too. 

"You sure you don't want to back out son?" Lance's Grandmother asked as she approached to two.

"I'm sure." Keith said with a quick decisive nod. The smile on his face though grew wider when he said his next line. "Plus, I quite like the sound of Keith McClain-Kogane.

 


End file.
